Keepers of Innocence
by Sulphuric Wolf
Summary: A pokemon drama fic about a girl whose father has been accused of a murder he didn't commit. The only way she can prove him innocent is to find all the the legendary Plates to rouse Arceus.
1. Prologue

The thick layering of dust blanketing the floor of the ruins had not been stirred for several months; the humans' had not taken a few of them away as was the annual ritual yet this year

The thick layering of dust blanketing the floor of the ruins had not been stirred for several months; the humans' had not taken a few of them away as was the annual ritual yet this year. Unbeknown to them, this was a mere three weeks away.

But their usually simple lives, which were not shaken as they had been the first few times by this event, were to be struck by a much more serious tragedy.

He was one of the prototype Shadow Pokemon, his fur not yet purple, but his eyes black as the sky on the night he arrived, his pupils as red as the blood he would spill that very evening. The only thing that showed he wasn't a real creature other than those terrible eyes, was the evil in his heart that played upon his face like a dark shadow.

Otherwise he looked like any other Persian. He had a stout, muzzled face with a few thick whiskers, a red gem on his forehead, a tail that coiled at the end slightly, and creamy, thick fur, except for the tips of his rounded ears, which were black and silky. Muscles rippled under his fur as he dragged himself through the forest; he could not walk properly; but he sure knew how to kill.

He crawled up the stairs of the ruins that looked like a jagged brown tooth sticking out of a forest of sturdy, ancient green fir trees, his fur drenched in a reeking mixture of his own blood and the mud that he dragged his twisted body through. Saliva dripped down his creamy coloured chest, an uncontrollable disadvantage of having been born of some twisted human's desire to play Aruceus.

The eerie purple light drew him on, beckoning, giving him false hopes of something good to eat in there. He was pleased with his discovery, his evil mind already fantasizing over rich, tasty meat.

But what was this? He could sense them, flitting about in their ancient home, yet he could not smell any meat. This seemed strange to him; he had taken a few lives before, and he had always smelt their meat, and sometimes their electricity.

He had barely any electricity himself. His only feelings consisted of hunger and bloodlust.

The light grew brighter as he dragged himself up the stairs. Eventually, he entered the ancient room, tainting the stone floor with the blood that oozed from his mouth uncontrollably.

The purple light engulfed him, revealing his twisted and pitiful form to the room of Unown. They watched him with blankly coloured, slightly surprised eyes.

He rolled on his back, cackling emptily, clawing aimlessly in their direction.

One of them floated forwards. It had a definite air of power around it, like some sort of unofficial leader. When this Unown spoke in his head, he was sure of the fact that it was male, and of a great age.

"Persian, why do you disturb our peaceful harmony with your presence?"

He stopped, not answering, but the dangerous, sharp grin disappeared from his face.

"I'm waiting for a response,"

He did not answer.

"Are you incapable of speech?"

The grin returned, but this time it was mocking and snide. "Of course I can speak, you fool,"

The Unown's eyelid raised slightly, giving it an amused look. "You dare speak to a Guardian like that?"

The Persian laughed, spraying saliva and blood all over the ruin, letting the frothy pink filth drip down the walls. Some younger Unown recoiled slightly.

"Guardian? A small little wimp like you?"

The Unown sighed in his mind at the newcomer's disrespect. "Size means nothing in our world," He replied bleakly. "At least tell me your name,"

"Malvagat," he spat.

"See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"Whatever," muttered Malvagat. "Care to tell me yours?"

The unown hesitated, wondering briefly if this was safe or not.

_What harm could it possibly do? He's obviously not right in the head._

The young, J-shaped unown was suddenly by his side, his aura slightly arrogant.

_Thankyou for that observation, Jowzie._

_You're very welcome._

The older, A-shaped Unown would never admit it, but he appreciated Jowzie's advice.

"My name is Arianoc. I am no leader of the Unown, as I have noticed you have thought-"

"Ah, so the little creature can see my thoughts. How very clever," interrupted Malvagat.

Arianoc ignored this comment, and continued.

"-but simply a spokesperson, or rather, spokesunown,"

The group of Unown laughed, which was a disturbingly human noise for a bunch of hovering symbols with only one eye.

"Very funny," Scoffed Malvagat sarcastically.

"Well," Said Arianoc in a vast tone, "Are you going to leave, or are we going to have to remove you?"

"I haven't even had my dinner yet," Suggested Malvagat.

"Do we look like we have anything for you to eat?" piped up another Unown, a U-shaped female.

"Don't aggravate him, Uvona," Muttered Arianoc to the female.

"You are mistaken, Unown," Cackled Malvagat. "You have something perfect for me to eat,"

His teeth dripped with blood and saliva as he advanced towards Uvona slowly. She slowly hovered backwards, looking anywhere she could except for into those awful, loathing eyes, off his terrible, rippling muscles.

"You keep those filthy claws off her," warned Yvnerdar, the male that was Uvona's mate.

"Why, would you rather me eat you instead?"

Yvnerdar gave off an angry, yet fearful aura. "You will spill the blood of no Unown tonight."

Malvagat's eyes narrowed, his whiskers trembling with anticipation. "Think again."

And he pounced.

The Unown moved in a frantic manner, like ants before the rain. One put up a psychic wall to protect Yvnerdar from harm, but Malvagat ripped it like tissue paper.

"This creature has been influenced by Dark forces. Dark types surpass Psychic energy," Arianoc reminded them.

His advice came a few seconds too late. Malvagat's huge, cream coloured body struck Uvona and crunched her into the wall. Her screaming filled their minds, piercing them, but nothing could prevent the sound of Malvagat's twisted laughing echoing through the room.

As Uvona wailed, Yvnerdar hovered around Malvagat's head, hoping to distract him, for he could do nothing else for reasons Arianoc had mentioned. It was obvious he was distressed; a few tears trickled from his eye.

_Crunch._

Malvagat's huge fangs crushed Uvona, her tiny body dangled limply from his jaws. Blood dripped down the mangled black form, mixing with the dust to make a disgusting crimson broth. The remaining Unown continued to pulse back and forwards, screaming in Malvagat's head; he shook his brutish head to clear his mind.

It didn't work, of course. Their horrified wails grew more and more piercing, until it became just a wave of static. Malvagat, who was a sensitve creature (not in the emotional sense, of course) could not handle their piercing screams any longer; he shook his victim, dropped her, and fumbled out the door, leaving only red froth and Uvona's mangled body to show that something malicious had happened there.


	2. Shadows Rising

Chapter one – shadows rising

A few weeks before the tragedy, a class of teenage girls ran a muck in a teacherless classroom. It was the brief interlude between lunch and the sixth lesson of the day, where the kids herded themselves into a classroom. Some walked around the classroom, gathering pieces of gossip from other cliques which were near the same popularity status as they were, other wrote rude things on the board, hoping the teacher would find them, thus cutting a few minutes of the unpopular lesson Unown and Creation Theory. Most of them would rather be outside playing sports, or in one of the more likeable lessons, such as Battle Calculations or Art.

However, a few students felt themselves quite at home. Although the Unown were unpopular amongst most teens due to the fact that they weren't too good in battle, and the fact that nobody would ever own a legendary, an odd few found the study of them quite interesting.

Lariana Montauge, affectionately known as "Larry", watched her peers, some of them her own friends, with a weary gaze. She was altogether happy with her class this year; most of them treated her quite well, with the exception of a few who though her to be nothing more than an odd heretic. However, even those who did treat her well got on her nerves occasionally when they acted up like this on a sugar filled high. Although not always quiet, Larry was respective of her elders, and didn't like the fact that this is what poor old Mr. Nier, who was close to loosing the plot anyway, had to come back to after a lunchtime of pulling kids down from trees in the primary section, and getting pecked by a few confused Hoothoot whose peaceful daytime slumber had been so rudely interrupted. Larry had watched him as her friends gossiped about boys (Being separated from the boys in classes made girls only talk about them more), not knowing wether to laugh or get angry at the students.

Mr. Nier walked into the classroom to find that all his students had been seated (having been warned by his Unown entering the classroom a few minutes earlier than the teacher himself) , shooting each other glances across the room and trying not to laugh. His bald, shiny scalp had a few red, oozing sores, and his glasses were slightly crooked. He leant his tall, thin body against the wall, looking perfectly insane.

Larry smiled at the sight of her favourite teacher.

"Well, I'm sure you'll all be excited to learn what we're studying about today, girls."

He turned to the whiteboard, revealing a "Kick me" label, which set off a few giggles from the middle row, where all the most popular girls sat. Nier's Unown sighed, and mentally detached the sign from its owner, crumpled it, and threw it in the bin.

The giggles turned to groans as they saw what he had written on the whiteboard: _Our Town and the Significant of the Unown_

"I knew you'd like it," Nier muttered.

Larry was indifferent. It was a topic that didn't involve calculating EVs or thinking up strategic movesets, so she was pleased. But nobody like learning about town heritage.

"Righto, who can tell me the names of the four known Unown Sites?"

A hand shot up in the first row, where all the really nerdy girls sat.

"There's the Ruins of Alph in Johto, the Tanoby ruins in the Sevii Islands, Solaceon Ruins in Sinnoh, and the Lunaceon ruins, which are obviously here in Lohto."

"Correct. And what do we notice about the names of these Ruins?"

Another hand shot up, this time in the back row.

"Alph is the start of alphabet, which I think has something to do with the fact that the Unown look like letters of the alphabet. Tanoby is an anagram of Botany, which is because all the chambers are named after plants, I think. But that makes no sense, seeing as the Unown have nothing to do with plants. I don't get it."

"Of course plants have nothing to do with the Unown. There were a lot of botanists around that area of Sevault Canyon, studying the species of grass native to that area. The chambers were named by them, but "Tanoby" was a kind of joke from ages ago, when anagrams were popular."

"That's lame," Piped up a middle row popular

"To you, perhaps. But anagrams were all the rage back then,"

Even Larry found this amusing.

"And we all know that the other two ruin names are named after their towns," concluded Nier. "It's also obvious why we are sister towns with Solaceon Town in Sinnoh,"

A girl yawned rudely. Nier ignored her.

"Now, I'm really sorry about this, girls, but I seem to have left my other documents in my office, and I really can't be bothered getting them, and I need Felos here to keep his eye on you,"

Felos the Unown rolled his eye at the man's bad joke.

"So, let's do some work on Arceus,"

The class perked up slightly. This was slightly more interesting.

"Until the discovery of Arceus, Religion and Science have remained separate, contradicting each other. But now we can both realise the power and majesty of such a beast, and worship it, and assess our universes very beginning in scientific terms. I'll briefly rehash you on the Arceus tale"

No student complained. This was hard to remember, there were so many legendaries, and they knew that this would be included in one of their many tests.

"First of all, there was only thing in existence: Arceus. It possessed awesome powers, but it had no space to use them, so Palkia was born, and it ruled the vast realm its birth had created. Then, for about a million years, nothing ever changed, so Dialga was created, and it ruled the time that had begun when it was born."

Then, for another million years, It was just the three creatures floating around in space, wasting their time away doing nothing, until Arceus created the earth. Firstly, it was a huge orb of yellow metal, and Arceus created Moleo to live in there."

Still, he was bored, so he fashioned two other beasts, who became mortal enemies. Groudon made the land and magma form over the core, and Kyogre covered the earth with seas."

For centuries they fought, Groudon creating land and Kyogre seas, until Arceus saw that their purpose had been fulfilled, and created Rayquaza, who created an atmosphere for the planet, and sealed the enemies away from each other."

The world lacked life, so Mew was created. It became pregnant and laid many eggs, which hatched into the Pokemon we have today."

The world was barren and Mew's children were dying, so Arceus created Shaymin, who made vegetation, grow all around the globe. Now Mew's children had something to eat."

Then he created more legendaries: Articuno to rule over ice and snow, Zapdos to rule over lightning, and Moltres to rule over flames. Raikou, the tiger, was fashioned to control thunder, Entei, the Lion was to rule over volcanoes, and Suicune the leopard ruled over the rivers and lakes of the world. A beast, Lugia, was made to control the birds, and a bird, Ho-oh, was created to control the beasts. Celebi was created by Dialga to travel through time and help the needy, and Manaphy was created by Palkia to keep peace on the sea floor."

Arceus created us, the humans, and gave us Heatran, who helped us master fire and metalwork, and Cressilia, who taught us how to document time. With these tools, we created a world where humans and Pokemon could live in peace."

But the humans could not learn from the many mistakes they made, they had no emotion, nor did they have any willpower to make them wish to do things. So the trio of Uxie, Mespirt and Azelf were created. As you know, they all have their respective talents, which you leant last year.

Then Aruceus made the mistake of creating Giratina, a beast supposed to keep Dialga and Palkia in check, but who became corrupt and created Jiriachi, who taught humans greed though his ability to grant wishes. In a hopeless attempt to kull humans, he created Darkrai, to posses our souls and kill us slowly. But this was foolish in the eyes of Arceus, who sealed Giratina away in another dimension."

Jiriachi was not an evil creature; he only wished to grant mankind's greatest desires. So Arceus sealed him on a comet, where he was allowed every thousand years to grant the wish of a pure hearted human."

"Well, there you go."

A discussion erupted in the popular girls area, but was quickly silenced by Felos's sharp aura change.

"But where do the Unown come into this? They aren't mentioned," Commented Neir.

Larry felt a sudden urge to answer something, so she raised her hand.

"Yes, Larry dear?"

"The Unown are pretty, well, unknown. We don't know even know whether the language came first or the Unown came first,"

"Thus the saying: 'Which came first, critters or the symbols?' One may argue that the unown came first because they can't just appear and happen to look like a random series of letters on the wall, in other words, the unown must have come first. But, in contradiction to that, one also may argue that Pokemon are amazing creatures that adapt to their environment, and an Unown's natural environment is ruins lined with these symbols, so as Pokemon do, they adapted their bodies to look like the symbols, thus stating that the scriptures may have come first. Scientifically, though, we have no proof,"

"Now," Nier checked his watch. "We have about thirty minutes left, so I'll give you a short writing assignment."

More groans.

Felos dropped a sheet of paper on each of their desks. Larry dragged her towards her, slightly discouraged by the surly Unown's lack of enthusiasm after she had thanked him.

_Write a 500 – 600 word essay on the significance of Unown our lives. Include their roles as our guardians, our friends, and of their attraction for tourist. Also include your own reflection of the fact that you will be receiving an Unown partner in a few weeks time and how this will affect your life, and how this has been a tradition in our town._

_Whatever is not done this lesson will be completed for homework._

Easy peasy.

Despite her usually rebellious opinions, Larry shared a common opinion: she rather liked the Unown. She'd spoken to a few of them, namely her mother and father's own guides, and they seemed sweet, caring creatures ready to help humans if they needed to. Besides, she did not mind that they were not as good as other Pokemon in battle, as she was far from a strategic player.

Her father was an accountant, so she had a pretty good knowledge of maths. Yet the prospect of breeding a living creature "to perfection" seemed a little weird to her, and she didn't enjoy the idea of spending pointless time fighting the same creatures repeatedly for a few measly stat increases.

She had finished the paper by the time the bell rung at the end of the double lesson, at which time she slowly packed up her books and pencils; she always hung back after class. Her classmates observed her with curious and amused eyes.

Larry's friend, Amber, was amoung them. She stepped forwards towards Larry, her mouth hanging open stupidly. Her ashy brown hair was twirled around her finger as she watched Larry with curious, sea blue eyes.

"Why are you taking so long?"

Amber had an extremely long, dull, drawn – out way of saying "Why?" It irritated Larry senseless. Yet her annoyance did not show when she replied.

"Because that's when the interesting stuff happens. Teachers drop stuff, swear, and complain about students when they forget you're there."

Amber cocked her head on the side, an expression common to Noctowl. "Why would you want to do that?"

Larry grinned a slightly disturbing grin. "Because it's funny."

Amber's loose mouth contorted into a wide smile. "You're so random,"

Larry raised her eyebrows and turned away. "Don't I know it…" She muttered.

Amber gave another one of her cheesy, too-wide smiles. The corners of her eyes crinkled. "Seeya tomorrow!"

"Bye."

Even though she was slightly annoying, Amber was friendly and loyal. Larry liked her.

As soon as Amber left, Nier walked out of the small office that adjoined the classroom, followed by his Unown. Nier's face was blank and expressionless, but Felos was wearing a frustrated aura. Larry dived behind a chair and listened.

"What is your problem? Report it to the police!" Felos's voice was as annoyed as he looked.

Nier was trying ever-so-hard to keep a straight face, but pain and worry showed through. "Felos, you know how I feel about the police. They're untrustworthy…"

"… Swinub. Yes, I know, Arthur. But this is serious. Lives are at risk here. How would the school feel if they knew that one of their most longest-serving teachers was keeping such a secret? You'd be sacked!"

Larry felt slightly more affectionate towards Felos, who had been one of the few Unown she mildly disliked. As it always was with his species, he showed genuine care for humans, even though they weren't the nicest of creatures.

"How much harm can one Persian do?"

"This is a Shadow Pokemon. The police have been keeping it quiet, but the Unown back in the Ruin have hacked into their minds. They want us to think we're safe, that the Rockets can do no harm anymore. That way, they keep our respect, and our dollars."

Nier snorted. "Typical."

"Indeed. But seriously Arthur, we need to tell them. Shadow Pokemon gain a Dark-type element. They are dangerous and uncontrolled. If that Persian gets into the ruins…"

"I know. It could kill an Unown. But it's not like they'll believe me."

Felos sighed mentally. "Look. I don't like the police any more than you do. But this is serious. Please, Arthur. I don't want to see you lose your job over this."

Nier pursed his lips. An awkward silence fell over the room, like a blanket of ice.

"Okay," The ice shattered. "I'll do it. But only for the Unown's sake,"

"Thankyou," Muttered Felos.

And they left the room, leaving Larry to digest what she had heard.


	3. Memory

Chapter Two

The unown in the ruin had calmed down and taken care of poor Uvona, who, although her wounds had been healed by the Unown's powers, was still shaken up and in a state of shock. Yvnerdar attempted to sooth her, but she did not stop staring at the ruin door, her eye wide and fearful. Meanwhile, some of the elder Unown, Arianoc included, discussed how they should deal with the matter.

An Unown by the name of Menzon, who was well known amongst the group for being a grumpy old fool, dominated the discussion.

"I say we go out into that forest and give that demon a right thumping!"

Arianoc sighed and tried not to roll his eye. He was extremely sick of Menzon's rambling, but could do nothing as the M Unown was a lot older than Arianoc himself. In Unown society, you respected your elders. With that in mind, he hid his irritated aura and spoke calmly.

"Menzon, that's impossible. You heard what Jowzie said –"

"Jowzie? Jowzie has lived less than a quarter as long as I. Why should listen to the young fool?"

"- the Persian has been influenced by dark forces. We psychic types have no influence on such a creation."

Menzon huffed, angry that his comment on Jowzie had been ignored.

A wise, female unown about the same age as Arianoc named Igla spoke up softly. "I suggest we tell the humans."

Menzon, as expected, snorted rudely. "Humans? Why, they're responsible for the mess in the first place. Why should we trust them?"

Igla did not flinch as Menzon glared at her challengingly. Instead she met his gaze calmly.

"Humans are not like Pokemon. They are either mostly evil or mostly good. And besides, would you like to be attacked Malvagat if he came back?"

Menzon huffed and glanced at Uvona, whose breathing was slowing down considerably. He did not reply.

Arianoc broke the uncomfortable ice that formed as a result of Menzon's lack of reply.

"So it is settled. We go see the humans tomorrow."

He glanced at Uvona. She had heard their conversation, and gave off a thankful, approving aura, although her eye remained fixed on the cold black rectangle that was the door.

Arianoc knew why. He too could feel the presence that dominated the room. Some of the young unown quipped up about it.

All eyes were on the corner of the room where a small figure was materialising. As it slowly became solid, Arianoc could see the bluish-white body criss-crossed with bulging veins, and the yellowish head that seemed too big for the body. The creature was not much larger than the Unown themselves, and looked almost like a human baby, except for the back of the head which was oddly formed as dome over the skull.

The same Unown who commented about the original presence in the room asked their older friends what this odd creature was. Igla and Arianoc stared curiously.

The creature's eyes, which were large and round and had been shut, slowly began to open. At first, all the unown could see was a pair of round, golden irises eyes staring at them. But then, the magic started to take affect.

Arianoc felt sleepiness course through his small body. The power that kept him afloat became weaker and weaker, and soon he was on the floor, fighting against the power by trying to stay awake.

The last thing he saw before he dozed into a memory wiping sleep was a flash of intense white light as Uxie disappeared.

--

Arianoc, of course, was not the only one who wanted to alert the humans of the danger.

Arthur Neir walked down the cobbled streets of Lunaceon with his hands in his pockets, staring at the ground as he walked. Felos hovered by his ear, ready to warn him of any trouble that Neir might not feel. These were considerably dangerous times.

The police station at Lunaceon was inconveniently located behind a stretch of forest. The designer of the town had assumed that the town would always be protected by the Unown, and that no kind of danger would ever threaten them. Neir had hoped they were right.

But, of course, Team Rocket hadn't existed back then.

Team Rocket had a terrible reputation, and that's exactly what they wanted. They were a vast group of crime organisations spread out over every region known. Although they had been underground for several years, it was common knowledge that they had been experimenting with Dark type genes and placing them in other typed Pokemon. The simple explanation for this would be that the Rockets wanted to control the legends, and most of the legends were Psychic types. A powerful Dark type army with tainted minds could help thwart even the most powerful of psychics, even a large group of Unown such as the one in Lunaceon.

Why hadn't they used bugs? The only explanation for this was that Dark types seemed more threatening.

The information about the shadow Pokemon had been leaked by a Houndoom named Zero, who had escaped Team Rockets clutches after been genetically engineered to have extra toxic flames, run to Lunaceon (Because anyone with an Unown in their team could understand Pokemon Speech) and spilled everything to the press and the police station.

The police, of course, had dismissed the claims, because they were supposed to have thwarted team rocket for good a few years back, and did not want public attention. The press, of course, had brought it up, and at one point there was a huge hype about the return of team rocket, which died down after a few months when nothing happened about it.

The occasional article popped up in the paper every so often, though.

"The paper's going to be happier than a Sableye in a diamond mine after they find out about this," muttered Neir to Felos, who gave a short laugh as they crossed the road and began to follow the winding path through the stretch of forest.

The police station was barely visibly through the thick vines that had climbed up its walls over the years. When Neir approached the square, small building, he could see gaps of cracked, cream concrete beneath the plants leafy embrace.

He opened a new, unfitting door that had recently been installed and was greeted by a small, basic room where young woman as sitting at a desk, her Unown C watching her as she typed on the computer.

The Unown's gaze flicked up to Neir and Felos as they approached, as did the woman's. She looked as though she was in her mid twenties, with wavy blue hair that her police cap was pulled snugly on. Her face was void of makeup, but she didn't need it to look beautiful. She was small and slender, not at all like the buff policemen Neir and Felos watched on _Pokecops_, one of their favourite programs.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Ummm, yes please…" Neir muttered. He had never been good with females, especially attractive ones. "I need to see the Sergent."

She fixed him with deep blue eyes. "Regarding what?"

"A shadow P-Pokemon sighting..." He fumbled.

The officer raised her eyebrows and gave a barking laugh that sounded like a Murkrow being trod on. "Mister, there are no such thing. We assure you."

Felos spoke up. "We know what we saw. My friend here wants to see the sergeant. Will you let him, or are you wasting our time?"

The officer looked almost surprised at Felos's outburst, but didn't react. "I'll call his straight away," she said, a surprised tone in her voice.

Neir glared at Felos as the officer called her boss. "What the hell did you think you were doing?" he hissed.

Felos simply stared and said, "Saving your ass,"

The Officer put the receiver down lightly, trying not to snicker. "Um, ok. First door to your left down that hallway."

"Thanks," said Felos harshly, and followed Neir into the room where the officer was waiting.

--

Nier fumed out of the room some time later, Felos in pursuit. The Unown called out to his owner repeatedly, but Nier was too mad to notice.

Nier could not believe the Sergent. Not only had he completely disregarded what Neir had to say, he had made obvious glances at the man's pecked scalp and inquired if he was mentally stable. At this point, Neir had fumed out.

"Arthur, you're being ridiculous! Wait!"

But Nier stumbled on through the bracken, pulsing with white hot anger, and unaware that a malevolent pair of eyes was staring at him from behind the bushes.

Felos sensed it right away, and knew who it was. "Arthur! The Persian!"

But it was too late. The feline sprung from it's hiding place, dark eyes ablaze with pitiless savagery, and tackled the man to the ground. It started him in the frighted face for a few seconds, foaming at the mouth, then slashed at his neck with its long and dangerous claws.

Neir let out a bubbling noise as the cat dragged itself back into the bushes. It merely hissed at Felos, it didn't want to make that horrible noise to come back by crunching one of those psychic things again.

Felos rushed to Nier's side and prepared to heal him. Unfortunately, because humans die quicker than Pokemon, Neir was dead before Felos had even summoned half his energy up.

The Unown gave a sigh and expelled the energy as a Hidden Power attack. It was too late. His companion – and only friend - was gone.

A few tears trickled down Felos and into the bracken as he floated back to the police station.

When the police asked him what he saw, he could not remember. He didn't know why, either.

Felos had not seen Uxie in the shrubs behind him

--

Sam Montauge was not the outdoors type. He was a lowly accountant had two left feet and a terrible sense of direction.

However, he found himself stumbling through the Lunaceon forest and cursing wildly in search of a Gastrodon for his daughter.

Sam knew how much she loved Gastrodon. She had often brought the topic up at the family dinner table, and he had seen some of her drawings, most of them featuring a pink Gastrodon with a blue one, looking at each other lovingly with many love hearts around.

He wanted to catch her one for her graduation present.

Sam had two daughters and a son. His son was seventeen, his daughters sixteen and twenty. He was a kind father and had managed to get his two eldest children their favourite Pokemon when they caught their Unown. He was determined to continue this tradition.

"See anything, Redger?"

The Unown looked about. "Nup. Nothin' but a bunch o' Rattata and Pidgey."

For some odd reason, Redger had a strong Australian accent. Being blokey and talkative, he was almost parallel to Sam, who was soft and intellectual. Despite their differences, they were close friends.

"Well, we can't get Larry one of those can we?"

"Course not. That would be stingy."

Sam almost tripped over what he though was a gnarly old tree root. "For fuck's sake," He muttered. "Damn tree root,"

"Umm, Sam?" questioned Redger "That ain't no tree root…"

As Sam turned around to see what it was, he slipped in what he though was mud.

"Damn mud," He cursed.

"Umm, Sam?" Redger repeated. "That ain't no mud"

Sam looked down at the liquid he had slipped in. Redger was right. It wasn't mud.

Unless mud was dark red.

Sam scrambled to his feet, and turned to look at what he had tripped on. His eyes widened.

"Holy… Arceus!"

A young man was lying flat on his back, blood pooled around him. His throat was slit and there were red, dried marks on his neck where blood had gushed out. His glazed, green eyes stared blankly up to the leafy branches.

With a jolt, Sam realised who it was. He recognised that face parent teacher meetings at his children's school. It was one of his daughter's teachers.

"Arthur Nier," murmured Redger.

"What should I do?" asked Sam.

Redger frowned at him. It was obvious. "Go to the police. They're just 'ere,"

Sam stared at the R shaped symbol. "What about Larry's Gastrodon?"

Redger was stumped. He knew how excited Larry was about graduating. It would be a pity not to get her something.

"Get some other Pokemon. 'S too late to be picky now."

Sam bent down to tie his bloody shoelace. Damn these boots.

As he did so, something dropped from his pocket. It happened to be his pocket knife, which he kept in case he needed to eat an apple. It hit the pool of blood with a sick squelching sound.

Sam cursed and grabbed the knife, wiping it on his pants. He put it back in his pocket and started into the forest.

"See anything, Redger?" He inquired shakily, trying not to think of the man's face.

"Mm. A Persian. Behind that bush."

Sam walked around the bush carefully, afraid of uncovering another corpse. Sure enough, there was a Persian behind it.

But this was no ordinary Persian.

It looked normal enough. It had creamy fur, with black tipped ears and a slightly curled tail. It had a red jewel in the centre of it's forehead like any other Persian. It looked at him, and he immediately noticed its eyes weren't normal. They had red pupils, and shiny black irises. The creature's mouth was half open, and blood and saliva was frothing out. Its back legs were slightly mangled, and they dragged behind it as the cat approached him.

Malvagat was a vicious and hateful creature, but he was also very cunning. He knew that this was a nice man, and that he could exploit him. So he mewed.

"Awwww, you poor cat. What happened to you?"

Trying to sound injured, Malvagat replied, "A bad man hurt me. He wouldn't stop swinging that club."

Sam watched with pity as the creature laid down, panting heavily. He could see how badly savaged its gums were, and decided that must be where the blood was coming from.

He turned to Redger. "I have to help him,"

Redger nodded.

--

The nurse accepted the Persian after giving Sam looks that suggested that she though he had done it, given that he was covered in blood, but he then told a fake story. After a quick x ray scan, she discovered that the Persian had broken bones and that his gums needed stiches.

The waiting room was small, square, and painted asylum green. It was mostly filled with sobbing noobs clutching fainted Pidgeys, Rattata, and various starter Pokemon. However, there was a girl about Larry's age wearing a concerned look and holding an Eevee, which was vomiting profusely into a plastic spew bag. This made Sam sad. Everyone liked Eevee.

He picked up a magazine and flicked to a story about the Grimer problems of the region, when the nurse called him over. She handed him a pokeball.

"His injuries were pretty severe, but we fixed them. We couldn't do anything about his eyes though. We don't know what caused that,"

Sam thanked the nurse and took the pokeball she held in her hands before hurrying out the door. He almost sprinted down the cobbled streets and bumped into several light poles, which were beginning to light up in the approaching dusk.

As he reached the police station, he noticed that one of the cars was pulled up with flashing lights. He frowned and entered the leafy building.

He was greeted by a scene of unmistakably chaos. A mother wailing, a body in a black bag, and a sad looking F Unown floating around the body. Before he could open his mouth, a young police officer was behind him, putting him in handcuffs muttering something about "arrest" and "murder"

Before he could say anything, Sam was dragged off to a cell, and Redger taken to a Psychic proof room.

At least he still had his daughter's gift for tomorrow.


	4. Suspect

Chapter three suspect

From the moment Larry woke up, her thoughts immediately turned to her father. This was a little quirk she had, whenever she woke up, she immediately though about what had been bothering her lately.

The events of yesterday had shocked her mother to the brink of tears, but Larry had merely raised her eyebrows. Her friends often liked to joke that if Larry got told she had inherited a million poke dollars, she would have shrugged and said "Neat."

Despite her unreactive front, she was very angry about the incident and had to stop herself from marching to the police station in her pyjamas and shouting at the police officers. Why the heck would her dad, the humble and geeky accountant, want to kill a man?

She was, however, grieving for her beloved teacher and Felos, and that had brought her to tears. A dark cloud hung over her as she dragged her emotionally exhausted body into the bathroom.

After a brief toilet encounter, she observed her reflection in the mirror. Her hazel eyes were still a bit puffy from crying, but one might have observed that as hay fever. She noticed with distaste that her hair was already oily after she had washed it last night, and the gel would not behave when she tried to gel her black mane into a mess.

Larry sighed and gave up on hair, deciding on a shower.

Shower time was thinking time. As she allowed the warm, calming water to pelt against her skin and hair, she stared at the room around her. It was well lit, clean and white. On a bench near the window, cosmetics and shavers were organised neatly. A purple bottle of Unown shampoo with a happy D-shaped critter on it rested against the sill. There were numerous sea related trinkets in the window; pieces of Corsola, Clamperl shells, even a Gyrados scale. But Larry's favourite thing was a small, faded picture of her family in a brown frame flecked with toothpaste.

Her father stood with his arms around her mum, grinning widely. He had more hair and it was long and brown as opposed to his current grey. Intelligent grey eyes peeped from under thick brows.

Her mother was smiling, too. Her teeth were clean and white and her lips red. She had her straight brown hair at shoulder length and stared at the camera with the happy eyes of a loved wife and mother.

She clutched a laughing baby, about eight months old, who was wearing a little pink bib with a Togepi on it. The baby had its arms wrapped around Qenzil, the mother's Unown, while Redger grinned above Sam's shoulder.

And now it was time for Larry to get her own partner. She wished with all her might that this hadn't happened now; today should be an exciting happy day for her rather than one of worry. The only reason she was looking forward to the day ahead was seeing her father in jail.

Larry could barely swallow her breakfast of Voltorb o's and Cheri Juice when she had finished her shower to find her mother and Qenzil talking calmly at the kitchen table. Both had looked at her and bid her good morning, then began to talk about the region's failing Pokemon centres due to the influx of noobs.

Larry pretty much stayed out of the conversation, trying to block out thoughts of Nier and her father in jail by thinking about her Unown partner.

She didn't mind what shape it was, so long as it was friendly and not an old grump like Felos. She preferred a female as she had always been a bit awkward around guys other than her father.

Then it came to mind that the Unown would have definitely seen the recent attack on one of the Unown. It had aired on the news a few days ago, while the family was eating dinner. A police officer had been interviewed, as well as an Unown A.

"Sir, do you deny the existence of Shadow Pokemon?"

"Absolutely. Our scientists have informed us that there is no way that we can add an extra type onto a Pokemon, or change the one they have already. Also, to acknowledge Shadow Pokemon is to acknowledge Team Rocket. We strongly reassure the watchers that Team Rocket has been captured and put behind bars."

The Unown Interview was a script that was read out by a human while an image of the Unown appeared on the screen.

"Arianoc, do you believe that this was the doing of a shadow Pokemon?"

"Yes, of course. No non-legendary Pokemon would have the strength to harm one of us, even dark types, for they would easily be countered by an Unown with a fighting type Hidden Power."

The Unown's aura was blue and calm in the photo. Unown could not hide the truth, and Arianoc was not lying.

After mixing the cereal around to make it nice and soggy, Larry spooned the cereal into her dry mouth, where lack of moisture made it slide down her throat like a lump of glue. Neither her mother nor Qenzil spoke to her until she walked over to rinse her bowl out at the sink.

Her mother's voice was soft and quiet. "You looking forward to getting a partner, sweetie?"

Larry rested the bowl upside down on the drying rack and dried her hands on a chequered tea towel. "Mmmm, it'll be a change, I guess."

Qenzil replied this time. "It will be nice to get away from those losers at school, won't it? I saw them the other day, they looked like jerks."

Larry looked at the Unown and shrugged. "They're okay I guess." Larry lied. "Not saying that I wouldn't like to back over them with a car several times, though."

Neither her mother nor Qenzil grasped that she was joking, and exchanged worried glances.

"I'm joking. You guys are too serious."

Larry's mother raised her eyebrows at Qenzil, who simply muttered "Kids,"

Larry grabbed her schoolbag off the lounge suit, which for some reason had been moved to the dining room. It was hard to walk around it.

"Ok, well I'm gonna go to school now. Goodbye, boring serious people,"

And she slammed the door behind her.

As soon as her daughter was gone, Ms. Montauge turned to her Unown partner, who was floating next to a bottle of syrup, reading the ingredients.

"I worry about that girl."

--

As Larry walked through the wire gates of her school holding her backpack, she gave a mighty sigh. She was more than pleased to be rid of this environment, with all its fake, humourless people. Her own group of friends, save Amber, had even begun to annoy her.

And it was finally time for her to get an Unown.

She was slightly late for school, so when she got to Home Room, everyone was there. She could see them through the window, running a muck. As soon as she opened the door, they all shot her a quick, nervous glance, and began to talk quietly. Even her own friends ignored her, huddled in a small group in the corner of the brown, small room.

As soon as Amber saw Larry, she rushed over to her. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" She threw her arms around Larry's neck in a tight embrace. She smelt sickly sweet, like she had drenched herself in strawberry milk before arriving at school

Larry patted her awkwardly on the back. She was not used to physical affection.

Amber pulled away after a while and fixed her friend with a worried gaze. "He didn't do it, did he?"

Larry did not hesitate to answer. Her voice was straining to be calm, but ended up wobbly. "Of course not. My dad would never do anything like that."

She felt tears welling up. Everyone thought her dad was a murder. Her father, the geeky, quiet accountant who had no idea how to use a gun.

Amber led her to the group, who opened up their tight circle. They did not greet Larry, but made stiff, awkward conversation while it was obvious they wanted to talk about Larry's dad and the murder of Nier. They avoided Larry's eye at any cost.

Larry was saved from the horrible conversation by her homeroom teacher, Ms. Meta and her partner Nefqod. She was one of the popular teachers, a Battle Calculations one, and she had a loose brown ponytail, and was very plain and basic. Her brown eyes usually radiated fun and laugher. Today, however, they were cold and sombre.

"In your seats please, everyone." Her voice was unusually croaky and soft.

The students made their way to their seats, Larry's group heading in the complete opposite direction to the one her and Amber were headed in. "Don't worry about them." Amber whispered.

When everyone was seated, the teacher took the roll. After finding out that everyone was there, (Of course, since it was the last day of school ever) Ms. Meta spoke in a hushed, sad voice.

"Now, I'm sure all of you know that one of our teachers, Arthur Nier, was tragically found dead near the police station yesterday. I think it would be nice to have a minute's silence in his honour."

While the icy silence hit the room, Larry fixed her eyes out the window, putting all her energy on holding back the tears welling in her eyes.

The minute ended and Meta began to read out a list of rules about the Unown Ruins. All were pretty obvious, such as "Do not try to steal any of the stone tablets you may find in the ruins" and "Do not try to use O Unown as Frisbees."

The last rule, however, made Larry stiffen.

"Do not venture into the forest alone, in the unlikely case that the murderer is still about."

Everybody in the room turned to stare at Larry, who shrunk in her seat. Meta looked at her apologetically.

She tried to brighten up a little, giving them all a forced smile. "Well guys, let's go catch some Unown!"

--

Larry waked though Lunaceon at the back of the class with Amber, who asked her repetitively if she was ok. Despite this being annoying, Larry felt a spurt of affection towards her every time she did it.

When they started to head out into the forest, Meta advised them to stay close. "I'm sure whoever killed Nier is still out there." Meta had met Mr. Montague before, and she was sure he was not a murderer.

Larry felt a burst of affection for her teacher, too.

As they reached the old stone ruins, Larry eyed the incredible shapes that had been carved into the stone surface. The shapes of the Unown's eyes were impossibly rounded. How had they made it so neat?

The stairs were big and hard to climb up, and Amber almost stacked it several times, had Larry not grabbed her skinny arm. Everyone stared as the awkward pair as they struggled up the stairs.

"Ok, when you walk in, everyone go into separate chambers and take out your Mystery Balls. Wait for an Unown to appear and capture it! Good luck."

Larry and Amber walked into the ruins carefully. Larry gasped at the magnificence of the ruins. Never had she seen something so amazing! Unown symbols had been carved into every wall of the great hall. Even the roof was covered. Piles of stone tablets were stacked along the walls. These were covered in symbols, too.

Amber pulled Larry, who was gawking at the splendour of the ruins, down the hall by her arm. She gave her Larry a small push into one of the rectangular doorways, and muttered "Go Larry!" into her friend's ear. Larry smiled woozily.

She stumbled into the small, square room and waited, absorbed in the symbols on the walls. There were so many of them, they soon turned into a blur before her sleepy eyes. She almost jumped out of her skin when an Unown finally appeared.

It was a J shape, with a yellow aura. _An electric type,_ Larry though, her heart pounding.

The Unown sighed in her head loudly, his voice young, male and arrogant. "Are you gonna catch me or what?"

Larry giggled at the Unown's wit. She liked him already.

"Hope you're ready to be the partner of the best kid in town!" She grinned, pulling a purple ball from her pocket and throwing it towards the little critter.

The Unown grinned back, before turning into yellow light andbeing sucked into ball. He gave no fight; the ball did not shake at all. It just dropped soundlessly to the ground.

Larry pulled her lips into a tight smile. She was forcing herself to be happy.

She bent over to pick up the ball off the dusty ground. It did not feel any heavier, even though it contained a living creature. This seemed crazy, and Larry wondered her self woozy trying to think about how it might work.

Then she remembered Amber. The girl was a complete klutz, and had probably managed to fall over and hurt herself. Larry left the little room and entered the one adjacent.

She was not surprised to see Amber on the floor, but it wasn't for the reasons she thought. Amber's light blue eyes were fixed on the wall, but not actually looking at it. She had zoned out.

"Amber, what are you doing, you silly girl?"

Amber did not look up at Larry. "Felos," She droned in a monotonous voice.

Larry frowned at her, hands on hips. "What are you talking about? He's at the police station."

Amber nodded, her eyes still passive. "He needs a new partner. Me."

Larry raised one dark eyebrow, making her look slightly insane. "What are you talking about?" She repeated.

Amber's eyes flicked to Larry, and she jumped to her feet nimbly. "Did you get your partner?"

Larry grinned. "Yeah, a J. He's really funny. Wait, what are you doing?"

Amber was tugging on Larry's arm, trying to pull her out the room. Larry was a lot stronger than Amber, so she held fast.

"Can you come with me to the police station? I want Felos!"

Larry sighed. "Look, I know that you feel sorry for Felos and all, but he's too grumpy for you. It'll just stress you out."

Amber frowned sadly and gazed at Larry. "You were a big grump when I met you. Now you've gone nice. I do that to people."

She had a point. Larry was a rude loner before she met Amber, but the girl had softened her. Maybe it would work on Felos too.

"Okay. But we've gotta tell Ms. Meta before we leave."

--

If Larry thought Amber had been clumsy walking up those stairs, she would get a run for her money watching her make her way through the forest. Tree roots, bumps in the ground, even clumps of grass all served as something for her to trip over. By the time they reached the police station, Amber was covered in leaves and Larry's throat was sore from laughing.

Larry's mirth soon turned into anger as she though of her father behind bars in this building she was entering. She wasn't allowed to even see him.

The same police officer that had "helped" Nier was sitting at the desk with her Unown, filing her nails. She only looked up when Larry cleared her throat loudly.

"Hi, my friend wants to adopt Felos as her guardian. He's the-"

The woman interrupted Larry. "Yes, he's the partner of the one who died. I'll go get his pokeball for you, and you can fill out these forms" She pushed a clipboard with a pink piece of paper clipped to it, and walked importantly into the little room behind her, her high heels clicking on the tiled floor. The Unown followed her.

Larry helped Amber fill out her form, which had slightly humorous options such as "unknown" in the gender section. The girl's laughs rung throught the room, but Larry's heart was still pounding as she though of how close she was to her father.

The Police woman walked back in holding a mystery ball. She was pinching the ball between her thumb and forefinger carefully, as if she knew how nasty Felos was. Amber took the ball from her just as carefully.

"Be careful of that one, hon. Awful temper on him."

Larry forced what she hoped was an apologetic smile. "We know. He was the aid of our teacher."

The woman's face slackened. "I'm terribly sorry to hear that you lost your teacher."

Larry nodded. "He was great."

Larry nodded, biting back tears. "He was great."

Larry blundered through the vegetation, her eyes blurry with tears, Amber stumbling around in her wake.

--

The graduation ceremony was boring and uneventful. Basically, the teachers were thanked, flowers were given out and the principal gave a snore-inducing, monotone speech in which she basically talked herself up. It only made Larry happier to leave.

The plans had been that all of Larry and Amber's friends were supposed to come back to Larry's house to meet each other's Unown. Instead, the girls had decided to catch the bus to Psychneur, without telling Larry, of course. Amber refused to go and decided to go back to Larry's.

The two girls sat on Larry's bed, which was a double bed like most people who planned to have pokemon's were. The quilt cover was something many kids would die for – it featured a large shiny Charizard belching out pale flames on a blue background. The room was large and cluttered, Pokemon magazines and books scattered everywhere. It was lit by natural light filtering from a large window that took up most of one wall.

"Well, do you think I should let Felos out?" Amber was pouting at the pokeball she held in her hands, as Felos would pop out any second and have a temper tantrum.

"I 'spose." Larry kicked off her shoes and lay on her bed, eyes closed. "I'll let mine out after."

Amber nodded, not taking her eyes off the ball, and pressed the button. It split in half, and a blue ball of energy that had been floating inside materialized into the shape of and angry and very confused Unown.

Felos frowned at Amber. "Who the hell are you?"

Amber grinned cheerily at him, giving him a wide, arcing wave. "Amber Sullivan. I was in Mr. Nier's class, remember?"

Felos's gaze softened at the mention of his old master. "Oh yeah. I remember now." Still looking agitated, the symbol glanced around the room. "But why the hell am I in some teenybopper's bedroom? It stinks like girl deodorant in here."

Larry sighed. "That's probably because you're in _my_ bedroom, so what to you expect it to smell like, Miltank s**h**it? You're here because Amber was kind enough to adopt you."

Felos glared at Amber. "What in the name of Arceus made you choose me? Fancy that, me partners with a noob. Hah!"

Larry had had enough. Felos's ungratefulness was really getting on her goat.

"You watch your tongue, mister. Oh wait, you don't have one!"

Amber giggled at Larry's joke, but fell silent as her friend attacked the ungrateful symbol in an angry crescendo.

"We could have easily left you to rot at that police station, but no, we had to come rescue you. I know it must be hard to loose Neir like that, but you have no right to attack someone who only wanted to help you."

Felos did not reply. He stared at a poster of Bowling for Suicune, one of Larry's favourite bands.

Larry poked her tongue out at Felos, then turned to Amber, who watched all this through wide, curious eyes. "Now, let's get on with this, shall we?"

Larry's thick hazel gaze made Amber nod quickly.

"Righto." Larry pulled the purple ball from her pocket, and cleaned it on the hoodie she was wearing.

With Larry pushing the button as Amber did, the ball split in two and revealed a yellow ball of light. The ball materialized into a J-shaped symbol, who gazed at the girls with an impassive eye.

"Hi."

"Hey." Larry forced an awkward smile, and attempted to push her black fringe out of her eyes in order to get a good look at her partner. "I'm Larry, your new girlfriend."

The unown chuckled. "Of course, my dear. I'm Jowzie, an Unown in the street and a beast in bed."

Larry nodded. "I see you are familiar with the courting customs of humans."

Jowzie inclined his small body slightly in response. "You humans are such, strange wonderful creatures. Weak-minded, perhaps, but you still make your children in truly amazing fashion."

The stunned silence that followed alerted the caustic pair to the fact that Amber and Felos were staring at them oddly, as if they were completely insane.

"It's a joke, people." Larry scoffed. "Get used to it."

Amber muttered something about a dentist appointment, and hurried out the room, never taking her eyes of Jowzie. Felos followed her, sighing loudly.

Larry turned to her new partner. "I think we'll make good friends."

"Indeed." Jowzie replied sleepily. "I think you'll make good sexy times."

Larry wondered silently how Jowzie had seen _Borat_.


End file.
